Sept. 18: Woodlands Academy Day in Lake Forest

The Lake Forest City Council has proclaimed Friday, Sept. 18, “Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart Day” in the city. That’s the day the all-girls college preparatory high school dedicates its new expanded campus on the former Barat College site.

An open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 18 will allow the general public to see how Woodlands Academy has transformed the 23-acre parcel into a variety of – mostly open-space – uses. Expanded campus features include two new athletic fields, the Gloria Dei Center (formerly the Barat College Cooney Library building designed by architect Dirk Lohan, grandson of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), Barat Cupola Garden and a community walking path.

The resolution adopted Sept. 8 by the Lake Forest City Council traces the history of Woodlands Academy from its 1858 origin as Convent of the Sacred Heart, a boarding and day school in Chicago, to the present. That proud history of educating girls and young women includes the 1904 relocation from Chicago to Lake Forest into a new building that later would become known as Old Main; the 1918 opening of Barat College of the Sacred Heart as an extension of the existing school’s offerings, with both Convent and Barat students attending classes in the “Old Main” building; and the 1961 opening of Woodlands Academy’s present facility and adoption of its current name.

Old Main’s surviving feature, the cupola, was removed from atop the structure as demolition began in late 2013 and is being restored. Its placement on Woodlands’ expanded campus is near the spot where Old Main stood from 1904 to 2014.

The expanded campus is adjacent to Woodlands Academy’s location at 760 E. Westleigh Road. Its addition creates a reunited 41-acre site that’s just shy of the original 44-acre 1904 parcel.

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Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It’s part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy’s identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat’s desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org

Photo caption

Lake Forest Mayor Donald P. Schoenheider presents Woodlands Academy Head of School Meg Steele with a proclamation declaring Friday, Sept. 18, “Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart Day” in the city. This honor is in recognition of the school’s expanded campus dedication and open house that day.